'Very upset people:flaming: ' demand a solution
More than 200 residents offer ideas to fix ailing system
Graham Hughes /The Ottawa Citizen
Sunday, January 25, 2004
Michael and Marlen Cowpland's palatial home at 234 Perley Crt. in Rockcliffe Park is the city's highest priced property, with an assessment of $12,548,000.
CREDIT: Rod MacIvor, The Ottawa Citizen
Consumer and Business Services Minister Jim Watson thinks residential property assessments can be brought to heel in the next two to three months -- at least for this year, with a long-term solution to follow.
The Liberal MPP for Ottawa-West Nepean and Ottawa Councillor Alex Cullen, who represents Bay Ward, hosted a three-hour property assessment forum at the Ron Kolbus-Lakeside Centre yesterday.
Mr. Cullen said the meeting was prompted by reaction to December's assessment notices.
"Across the City of Ottawa, residential assessment went up 26 per cent. Even though the city adjusts its taxes to avoid a windfall gain, 80 per cent of residential taxpayers in Ottawa are seeing increases in their taxes based on property assessment, so we have a lot of very upset people," he said.
"The way the system is working now, this is beginning to happen on an annual basis and people are concerned, because there are no similar or corresponding increase in services, no corresponding increase in their ability to pay."
More than 200 people crowded around tables in the centre yesterday, offering ideas on ways to control the assessment system.
Representatives of the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation attended the forum and explained how they set assessments. But the provincial organization doesn't set policy, it just works according to rules set by the government, Mr. Cullen said.
"We have a new government and that new government is open to ideas to deal with our problem and problems elsewhere in Ontario," he added.
He said Mayor Bob Chiarelli had met with Finance Minister Greg Sorbara in Toronto and the minister made a commitment to review the system.
"So, we're feeding into that government review by this session today and I'm hopeful we will see real change."
Mr. Watson said the meeting was intended as a forum for ideas. "We're getting a lot of feedback from people about the assessment system and also about individual assessments," he said. "People, in many instances, have seen their assessments go up 50 to 70 per cent and that has a direct impact on their property tax bill that's going to be coming out."
The ideas ranged from basing assessments on the actual value of the house when it's sold to using the square footage to set rates, he said, because of worries about tying the assessment system to volatile property values.
"In Ottawa, we have the highest increase in property assessment in the whole province, so that's affecting a lot of people," Mr. Watson said. He noted the finance minister has agreed to work with area MPPs and the municipal government to try to find a solution.
Mr. Watson said the suggestions would be refined and given to the minister "so we can find a solution for this year's situation then talk about a longer-term solution in terms of where the province wants to go with the assessment system."
Some in the audience backed the use of a stable value like square footage of a home to set assessments.
"That breaks the link with market value," Mr. Cullen said. "What people are upset about is that the spikes in market value are what are making their taxes unaffordable, so they want to break the link with market value and link it more to services that are received, or to ability to pay."
Other suggestions included reviving municipal income taxes, which were in place more than a century ago, he said.
Mr. Watson said buying a home in a desirable neighbourhood, where some homeowners are renovating and others are flipping the properties, means they get stuck with the increased assessment, which amounts to taxation on an unrealized capital gain.
One short-term solution could be to go back to last year's assessment, which brings stability for at least this year, he added.
